Basic Info:
Catherine II
Empress of Russia  from 1762-1796
Born- may 2, 1729
Died- November 17, 1796
Husband- Peter III of Russia
Children- Paul I, Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky, Yelizaveta Grigoryevna Tyomkina, Anna Petrovna

(I honestly have no idea how to pronounce half of these Russian names. They're too complicated.)

Early Years:
She was the daughter of a German prince. When she was only fourteen years old, she was betrothed to Peter Ulrich, duke of Holstein-Gottorp and grandson of Peter the Great. He was heir to the throne of Russia.

She arrived in Russia in 1744 to meet her future husband (who, I'd like to add, was also her cousin. Gross). She was given the title Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, and married Peter the next year.

During this time, Russia was being ruled by Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. She reigned for twenty years and prepared Catherine for her own reign.

Marriage:
Her marriage to Peter wasn't happy. He was rebellious, an alcoholic, and some people believe he was impotent. (Not exactly the type of person you want to control the government).

Catherine was the exact opposite. She was level headed, intelligent, and ambitious. She was greatly beloved by the people of Russia. She was careful to prepare herself for her future role as empress of the country.

Being in an unhappy marriage, she found entertainment in other places. She had at least three lovers, and it is beloved that these men fathered all of her children.

Becoming Empress:
Elizabeth died in December of 1761, and Peter III was now emperor of all Russia. He quickly ended Russia's participation in the Seven Year's War (where Russia was allied with Austria and France). He then made an alliance with Frederick II of Prussia (who Elizabeth had greatly hated).

Peter seemed to favor Germany over Russia and he made no attempt to hide it. (He was born in Germany, which explains his preference). He was also considering ridding himself of his wife, Catherine, who he had never gotten along with.

However, this wouldn't be an easy task for him.

Catherine had an entire army to support her. She was loved by every Russian citizen.

On June 28, 1762, she led her supporters into St. Petersburg and proclaimed herself empress in the Kazan Cathedral. Peter III gave up the throne and was assassinated only eight days afterwards.

Historians agree that Catherine most likely hadn't ordered he death of Peter, but it was done by her supporters.

She was crowned that September in a huge ceremony in Moscow, beginning her thirty four year reign as Catherine II.

Years as Empress:
Catherine was determined to make Russia a good and prosperous country and once she was crowned, she immediately got to work on doing so. She had many many projects to help achieve this goal.

The most pressing project was to restore the treasury, which had been empty since Elizabeth died. She began by claiming properties from the clergy, who owned 1/3 of land and serfs in Russia.

This left the clergy with very little power compared to what it had during Peter III's rule.

She stayed on friendly terms with Prussia and several other countries, wanting to keep the peace. However, they did have a few problems with Poland.

She fixed this in 1764 by making one of her old lovers king of Poland. The man posed no threat and was still devoted to her.

She next went about starting a reformation and creating a constitution for Russia, but this wasn't easy. The debates on Catherine's Instruction went on and on for months. The court thought it was too liberal and it died.

Frustrated with her failure, Catherine turned her sights on Turkey, Russia's old enemy. War began in 1768, which started a fire of patriotism in the Russian citizens. There was a great naval victory in 1770, but Turkey wasn't ready to give up yet and they kept fighting.

Russia had many more problems than just the war. Plague broke out in Moscow, and in 1773, Yemelyan Pugachov (former officer) tried to impersonate Peter III and created a massive uprising. His troops prepared marched into Moscow in 1774.

Russia had won the war against Turkey, and now Catherine set out to squash this rebellion. Pugachov was defeated, captured, and beheaded in 1775, but the rebellions did not end there.

Before becoming empress, one of her goals had been to free all the serfs in Russia, but now she began to see the problem in that. Emancipating the serfs, would not spark fury in the landowners of Russia and she needed these people to support her. She was forced to turn her attention away from the serfs and focus on other things.

She started forcing the Ukrainians in serfdom. She strengthened the system that she had so strongly hated for so long and by the end of her reign, hardly any peasant in the whole nation was free. Life was also worse for these serfs because of her.

In 1774, Grigory Potemkin, who had fought in the war with Turkey, became Catherine's lover. He was one of her favorites and because of that, had a very strong role in the politics of the nation. Their relationship only lasted a couple of years, but he was given an extreme amount of power that he held onto even after their relationship ended. She treated him as an equal and had a great amount of respect and love for him. It was because of him that Crimea was annexed into Russia.

Catherine traveled to Crimea in 1787, visiting and taking hold of all her new land. Many diplomats, the king of Poland, and the emperor of Austria cane to visit and honor her on her trip. She dedicated new towns, giving them her name.

The French Revolution sparked other revolutions all over Europe and Catherine sought out to quickly end these.

In 1793, she annexed most of western Ukraine and after an uprising in 1794, she completely wiped Poland off the map. The territory was divided up between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1795.

During her final years, she began to realize that she had no suitable heir. Her elder son, Paul, was considered incompetent and her grandson was too young. Paul I ended up becoming emperor.

Death:
Catherine the Great died of a stroke at the age of 67.

Although she had been an extremely intelligent and generous woman, she also was known to be vain and pretentious, especially as she got older. Still, she is viewed as one of the greatest rulers to ever live.

Legacy:
To this day, Russians greatly admire Catherine. She seen as a symbol of national pride. She was a strong ruler, who stopped many uprisings and defeated other nations in battle. At the end of her reign, Russia had expanded an area of over 200,000 square miles, hundreds of new towns were built, trade was expanded, and she had many military victories.

Cool facts:
• she was Russia's longest ruling female leader
• her name wasn't really Catherine. It was Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst. She changed her name after she got married and converted to orthodox Christianity. Her name was changed to Ekaterina (Catherine)
• she wasn't really Russian. She was born in Poland.
• her eldest son may have been illegitimate. She and Peter didn't get along well and both of them had affairs. She began a relationship with a Russian military officer named Sergei Saltykov. When Paul I was born in 1754, rumors began to spread that the child was Sergei's, not Peter's. Paul's true parentage isn't known, but it's strongly believed even today that it was Sergei who fathered him.
• she was known for her many lovers and being her lover meant you'd get a lot of gifts like money and land. One of her lovers even got over a thousand indentured servants
• she saw herself as Russia's most enlightened ruler. She wrote many books and pamphlets, trying to improve the education system.